⸦ ϴ κ ŬϽʽÿ
(Click the Part Line which you want to look at)

1     Part-1      (Motivation and Process to start)

2     Part-2      6/14 - 6/23   (Departure) - Mt. Rushmore - Chicago - Syracuse

3     Part-3      6/24 - 7/4     Columbus - Washington DC - New York - Philadelphia

4     Part-4      7/5 - 7/18    Charlottesville - Florida - Key West - Houston - Las Vegas - Ͱ(Home)

1     Part-1     
(Motivation and Process to start)

츮 ̱ California Silicn Valley Ѱ 1973 9 15̾. ̱ AMI(American Microsystems Inc.) ѱ Ͽ KMI(Korean Microsystems Inc. Ѹũֽȸ) ̻ ٹϰ ־µ, ÿ ̱ε ѱ ʹ ξ, ѱ Ҽ, ҴϿ Ŀ ͼ dz̳ Ÿl 鸸 , ѱ ׷ ϰ ־. ׷ AMI ѱ Ϸϱ θ ϱⰡ ʹ ٰ, ̱ ͼ 2⸸ 鼭 ̱ε鿡 ѱ ־ ڰ Դ. 2 Ŀ ѱ ư, Ѵٸ ̱ ϵ ְڴٴ Ǻο.

, ̱ ƹ ̱ , ô뿡 Ϻ 20 Ŀ ؾ, Ϻΰ Ȱ Ϻ ִ 迡, ÿ б г(ġ - б 3г)̾ Ƶ 3  °, ʳ ׵鿡 ū ɰ Ƽ, ³ϰ 1973⿡ ̱ Ͽ, ̷ 2 Ѻη ̱ ̾Ƿ, ̳ , AMI Ʈ ־, ڵ ϳ Ͽ ⸧ ־.

׷ 츮 ̱ ϱ , Ϻ ߶  Ϻ ִµ, ̱ 10 Ŀ,  ̱ ģ " ڵ ̱ Ⱦ ִ?" , ٰ ߵ, "׷ ʴ ̱ 𸥴." Ͽ, ū ԰ New York San Francisco ڵ Ⱦ , ̱ 󸶳 ?, ̱ ˰ڵ ̾. ׷ ̱ ڸ 鼭, AAA(American Automobile Association) ȸ Ǹ ȳ ִ ȸ Ͽ, ̱ ϴ ڵ ȹ ¥ Ͽ. ȳ ִµ ٰ , ٰ θ ȹϰ, ϳ Ѱ ȹѰ 75 õ "ְ̱ȹ", ÿ ø ϰ, ű⼭ ð ϰ, ȣ ڰ.̷ ȹ ۼϿ.

Our family moved to Silicon Valley in California, U.S.A. from Seoul, Korea on Sept. 15th. 1973. I was working at KMI(Korean Microsystems Inc.) as the Director/Plant Manager. KMI was a subsdiary of AMI(American Microsysems Inc.) in Silicon Valley to assemble their products. At that time, most Americans have never been to Korea and didn't understand Korea well. Only small number of Americans have been to Korea but mostly as the soldiers during the Korean War. Therefore, all they have seen was poor Koreans as the victims of the war and many beggars on the street begging to Americans. Therefore, AMI had quite a difficulty to communicate with KMI and asked me to move to U.S.A. for about 2 years to educate AMI employees about Korea and assist them to communicate with KMI. AMI said I may return to Korea after 2 years or AMI will arrange for us to continue to live in U.S.A. after 2 years, if I want.

At that time, I was not interested to live in U.S.A. but liked to live in Korea. However, I have an experience that I could speak Japanese just as Japanese people after 20 years of liberation of Korea from Japanese occupation and I did not use Japanese language for these 20 years, because I have learned Japanese language while I was a small boy. I thought it would be very helpful for my 3 small boys at the time if they learn English at that ages as English is the international language. Therefore, I have accepted the proposal of AMI and we moved to Silicon Valley in 1973. As it would be the temporary stay for only 2 years, I could not buy a house nor a car, and AMI provided an apartment and leased a car for me with all AMI paid including gas.

Right before we moved to U. S. A., I read an article of a Japanese guy who stayed in U. S. for more than 10 years in a Japanese magazine. He wrote an American friend asked him whether he had driven crossing the U. S. by car. When he answered "No", his friend said "Then you don't know America yet.". So, he crossed U. S. from New York to San Francisco and found for the first time how large the United States is and how powerful fundamental it has.

Recalling this article, I joined AAA and planned cross U. S. A. trip as soon as I become little familiar to American life. I collected all maps and tour books from AAA and spent about a year for a detailed plan where to go, where to stay in which hotel or motel, which road to take, what time to leave in the morning and what time to arrive at destination of the day etc. etc..

׸ ̰ õ Űܾ߰ڴµ, 켱 ټ Ⱓ Ϸ ڵ ¿δ ȵǰڰ, Station Wagon Ұ Ҵ. ׷ ̱ 1Ŀ AMI Lease ϰڴٰ Ͽ, Station Wagon ٲ. ¥ ڵ ȸ簡 ְ ƴѵ, ׿ 5ְ ȸ縦 °͵ ڰ, ȣں ġ ʰ ⿡, λ ãư ߴ.

"̱ȸ簡 ܱ İϸ, ϳ⿡ ѹ Home LeaveϿ װḦ δϿ ̱ Դ ϴµ AMI ׷ ִ?" - Yes.

"׷ 츮 ̱ 2 µ, ̷ ־ ʰڴ" - OK

"׷ 1δ װᰡ $1,200 ϱ (׶ Ȱ .) $6,000. ٵ, ̷ ֿ̱ ϰ ; ϴ°ǵ, ̵ ŸϿ $3,000 AMI , ݸ ټ ڴ?" - OK

"AMI Կ ϸ ϳ⿡ 20 ް ִµ, KMI ϴ ϱ 3 ٹ ް . ̰ ϴ 25ϸ (ٹ 25̸ 5) ް ڴ?" - OK

Now I was ready to go for this greatest trip in my whole life. However, to travel with 5 family members for more than a month, it seemed the station wagon must be much more convenient than the Ford Torino passenger car we had, though it was a big car too. After one year since we came to U. S., I asked AMI to lease a new car and switched car to a Ford Country Square station wagon. Since AMI paid all gas, maintenance and insurance of the car, automobile expenses were no problem. However, other travel expenses such as lodging and food etc. would be quite an amount too. I went to my boss, Mr. Charlie Isherwood, VP Manufacturing, and started to negotiate.

"I understand, when American company sends expatriate to foreign country, there is a provision called home leave and the company pays air fare of whole family once a year usually. Do you have same provision in AMI?" – Answer : "Yes"

"Now, it is the second year in the United States for us. Shouldn't we have this benefit by now?" – "OK"

"The round trip air fare of our 5 family members to Korea would cost about $6,000. (There was no such a deep discount air fare and it cost about $1,200 per person at that time.) Now, I would like to propose to split this cost with AMI half and half because I would like to have this money spent for crossing U. S. A. trip to learn, experience and understand U. S. better rather than to take a home leave to Korea. Could I have $3,000 in cash for this trip and AMI retain $3,000?" – "OK"

"According to the AMI regulation, all employees can have a vacation up to 20 days a year. I was so busy in KMI for 3.5 years but never had a vacation there. Can I have 25 days (= 5 weeks) of vacation now to compensate it?" – "OK"

̷ Ǭ ȵ ֿ̱ ۵Ǿ (1975 6/14 - 7/18). ڼ װ͸ε åѱ ǰϱ, , 27ֿ ó ݹ Ÿ 11,200 ϸ鼭 , ̱ дٴ° (San Francisco New York 3,000, SingaporeŸ̰, ڵ ϸ鼭 24ð ʰ ؼ 3 ҿ), ̱ ׷ ôߴ Ͽ ׳ 95% ձ Ȱ ߻ ״ζ°, Ȱ ô뿡 濡 ݱ ã ôڵ 帶 ϳ Ѱ ɷ San Francisco, Ư 浵 Rocky̳ Sierra  Ѿڴ? εȵ ޾ ̻ ״ ߴµ, ׵ ô ſ źҼ ۿ , Ͽ 200 ѱ 濡 ߷ ٸ, ΰ? ¼ Massachusettsֵ ƴѰ? ̷ ɰ ° ־⿡ ̱ ִ°, ѱ ϵ ̱ Ѹ , ó ϴ° ȵǴ ̶° ǰҼ ־. ̷ ô Ƹ޸ĭ εȵ鸸 ñ Ҵٸ, ƹ ڿ ٴ ̳, ᱹ ߽ڸ ʾ?

̷ ̱ ̳ ̴ ã ٳ, ϰ ģô ģ ãư, ݰ ȸ . ÿ ǽ Ͽ, Ư ̵鿡 ΰ Ȱ Ҵ. ׷ AMI, KMI ÿ AMI Ư Ǯ ༭ ̰ , 5ְ ް° ʰ, ϰ, ( $3,000 ڵġ ġ ̻ Ʋ .), Դٰ ֵ ʹ  ֵ ̰, ̰  б , б , ǵ Ȱ 鼭, θ ̷ ϴ° ׷ ް ʱ , ñε ˸° ٳ԰, ̷ ¾ شٴ° ƴϱ , ̰͵ ũ ū ̶ Ҽ ۿ ٰ Ǹ, ̰ ϻ ִ ̾, ENJOY TODAY ϴ ƴϰ, ȸ ذġ ̷ ̱ε ȵɰ ȴ. (Ŀ Canada Ⱦ ȹ ִµ, ֵ ȰڴٰϿ ߴ.)

This was how we started this greatest trip in our lives and completed around U. S. A. trip for 5 weeks driving 11,200 miles (about half the distance around the world) passing through 27 states from Santa Clara to New York, to down south to Key West, Florida and through New Orleans and Las Vegas (6/14 – 7/18, 1975), which was 100% paid by AMI practically ($3,000. was more than enough to pay all travel expenses as the gas was charged to AMI provided gas company credit card, Holiday Inn was $30-$40/room  a night at the time with "Kids eat free" program and McDonald "Big Mac" was only $0.99/meal).

Because it would take a book to talk about the details of this trip, I would not describe it here. However, it was really a wonderful trip, every family enjoyed very much every day and we had learned al lot about this great country of U. S. A.. I also have found it is not that easy trip to take for every one as you have to have relatively new big car, you can take 5 weeks vacation from your job and it costs quite a bit of money too. Not only that, all of your children should be at elementary school age, as younger than that ages, it will be a hard work for them rather than enjoyable and, older than that ages, they all have their own lives and do not want to have long trip with parents.

What we have learned by this trip were : the United States is really a large country first of all (San Francisco – New York is about 3,000 miles which require non-stop driving of day and night for at least 3 days, about the distance from Seoul to Singapore), it looks like 95% of the United States is still untouched wild area yet, though it is one of the most developed country, how amazing it is that old pioneers have crossed this continent from Boston to California with wagons passing through wild high mountains of Rocky and Sierra without road loosing more than half of their lives most cases because of so many Indian attacks.

Because of these pioneers and their lost lives, I believe we are enjoying this great society today. So many Koreans say Americans are lucky guys with so many resources given by god. I don't think they really understand the United States which has been established by so many pioneers devoting their lives and hard works for hundreds of years and it is not just a free gift from god. What if there was no pioneer from Europe in this country and only American Indians had lived in this country until now? Would it be still a great country like this today? No way. It would be even far worse than Mexico today.

We visited most of famous places and many relatives in the east coast during this trip. I learned a lot about the United States but it was a great opportunity for children too.

This trip was possible because it was the best time of AMI, KMI contributed to AMI a lot and AMI gave me a great favor. I believe I was again a very lucky guy. I think it would be possible only for the guy like me thinking "ENJOY TODAY" always and wonder how many Americans could do this kind of long trip. I planned cross Canada trip later days but could not make it, as all children were already grown up attending high school and did not want to travel with all family together as they had their own friends and activities.


̹ Ŀ, Ÿ ٴ Station Wagon Mileage (Ϸ 22,204 - ߽ 11,008 = Ÿ 11,196 miles)ǥÿ â ٿ 湮 ƽĿ.

 After the trip, the mileage shows 11,196 miles (= When returned 22,204 - when started 11,008 miles) and the stickers of visited places on the window of station wagon.